Be a student, not a tourist

Studying at the University of Leeds through API was possibly one of the greatest decisions I have made in my college career. The thing I loved most about Leeds was that everyone was welcoming of international students on and off campus; someone with an American accent was treated as a student and not a tourist, not something I can say for places like London. Also, it was easy to get involved. The campus had involvement fairs with clubs and organizations for every personality. The best part of my academic experience was that as an English major in England, I wanted to know the British perspective of the authors that I read and I definitely got it. The lectures were very focused and extensive on contextual information about the text. Also, at Leeds Uni, English majors are actually English and Theatre Studies majors. On my home campus, the English and theatre departments are far from collaboration which I find unfortunate. As luck would have it, one of the theatre professors here used to be the theatre director at Leeds. I took one of his colleague's classes which is also where I met most of my friends. In this class too I learned what theatre majors back home don't: how to read a play with literary analysis; I learned what English majors don't back home: how to portray what we find in the text on stage. I thought it would be difficult to make friends, but I knew that if I was friends with theatre majors back home, I would be in Leeds too. I can't wait to go back and visit, and I wish I could study with API again who were very generous with their support.